Month: January 2009

Here’s another one of their inventions that bubbles efficiency. A foldable bike. I have seen ones like this in Wired and other sites before but these guys have taken it to a whole new level. For example, they have a foldable hardtail ride that tackles rugged mountain trails with standard 26” wheel specification.
If only the cost was down to earth as the idea itself …

Man knows himself only to the extent that he knows the world; he becomes aware of himself only within the world, and aware of the world only within himself. Every object, well contemplated, opens up a new organ of perception within us.

An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first one orders a beer. The second orders half a beer. The third, a quarter of a beer. The bartender says “You’re all idiots”, and pours two beers.

Given the reputation of being the ugliest animal on the planet, I had to look up more details on the Anglerfish. Here’s a picture and some details about this deep-sea carnivorous fish.

Nevertheless, what caught my interest, apart from their fantastic and gory looking appearance is the following fact:

The male, which is significantly smaller than the female, has no need for such an adaptation. In lieu of continually seeking the vast abyss for a female, it has evolved into a permanent parasitic mate. When a young, free-swimming male angler encounters a female, he latches onto her with his sharp teeth. Over time, the male physically fuses with the female, connecting to her skin and bloodstream and losing his eyes and all his internal organs except the testes. A female will carry six or more males on her body.

A very impressive collection of photos about supercomputers, from Konrad Zuse’s apparatus to few of the rather not-so-famous flop burners of the recent years… Interesting. I was wondering why they had left out RoadRunner of recent fame but then a quick search on google yields the updated full list for anyone interested.

There has been quite a furore about an unknown truck driver delivering a thorough account of the first 2 nuclear bombs ever built on the face of the earth. Intrigued and excited, I searched google to read more about him and stumbled on this gem of an interview/article that brought him to light.

Read David Samuels’s account about the truck driver, John Coster-Mullen, who conducted more than a decade of research to successfully build the first accurate replica of Little-Boy, the master-blaster that annihilated Hiroshima, ending WWII. The article itself is quite interesting and leaves you wanting for more. Here’s an excerpt:

I recently wrote to Coster-Mullen and suggested that we take a trip across the country to visit his Little Boy replica, which is currently housed at Wendover, a decommissioned Air Force base in Utah. After some negotiation, we agreed to ride together on his late-night delivery route between Waukesha and Chicago. We would then drive to Wendover. Along the way, he would explain the inner workings of the first atomic bombs, and I would learn how he got it right and the experts got it wrong.

For the past few years, I have been following the buzz on quantum computing. Even if I only barely understand the theory behind physics involved, there is still something mysterious about quantum mechanics that keeps bringing me back. Anyway, I diverge here.

Recent breakthrough in quantum computing occurred when scientists were able to successfully teleport information between two distant atoms. Furthermore, there are huge possibilities in the field of quantum cryptography if the efficiency of the quantum entanglement is a little more feasible.

Archimedes, the original physicist and mathematician, was apparently responsible for coming up with the fundamental ideas for calculus. Although it might be safe to say that neither Newton nor Leibnitz actually knew this, they have to forego the privelege to having stumbled onto the thought first.

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Disclaimer

All posts on this site are solely my opinions, thoughts and prejudiced rants on various topics that interest me. These are my own philosophies that drive and help my evolution and may not apply to my random readers from varied backgrounds.

Life's beauty lies solely in the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind. And that is your curiosity and everyone's research. So be curious, learn and explore...